How to Use a Community Outreach Assistant to Increase Your New Patients in 2018

Not enough new patients is the #1 problem chiropractors’ face and has been for my 30+ years as a coach.

Nothing hurts a practice more than bad new patient numbers and nothing helps it more than fixing the new patient problem.

In fact, if you beat the new patient problem, all other practice problems will be fun and exciting. Such as, “Where do we put ‘em all?” But if you struggle with new patients then nothing’s any fun.

Additionally, it’s my experience that chiropractic is so powerful that if you get the new patient thing right, you will help lots of people, have lots of fun and make lots of money – even if you’re a mediocre chiropractor.

Because getting lots of new patients is THAT important, and I promise you it is, why don’t we layout the fastest, most effective and most logical solution I know to the new patients problem.

It’s the solution every $1M Five Star client I coach uses everyday and swears by as a KEY PIECE to their practice success.

But first, let me ask what your office would look like if you solved the new patient problem?

Busy? Energetic? Fun?

Yes, yes and yes.

Your schedule would be full; your associates’ schedules would be full. Your power hours would be packed. Your volume would be at record levels and the days would fly by.

I have lived this and help people everyday achieve this level of success.

AND here’s why it’s so much fun – you don’t do any of the marketing. You get to stay in the office caring for patients while SOMEONE ELSE brings the new patients in the door.

Do I have your attention?

What you need is an external marketer. What I call a community outreach assistant or COA.

Here are the 3 Keys to having great new patients in the door from an external marketer or COA.

You need ONE Killer New Patient Program: Instead of 3-5 or more new patient projects, you need just ONE new patient program that has these 3 important features:

Feature #1: Rapid Event Setup Template – It’s easy to set or get the event and easy to do.

Feature #2: Plug-n-Play so you can cross train associates and CA’s to participate.

Feature #3: Top Producer where you get 66% to show up and 66% to commit to care. In other words, if you make 100 appointments, 66 will show up and 44 will commit money to care.

You need a GREAT external marketer or, what we call, a Community Outreach Assistant.

Here’s how to get one:

Feature #1: You need a Hiring Kit, which puts lots of prospects into a group interview and test for aptitude. In my group interviews, I share chiropractic testimonies and explain what the job duties are.

Feature #2: Pick the top 2-3 applicants for a job audition. The job audition is 60-minutes of calling our list with a script to book events. At the end of 1 hour the right people will enjoy the process and even book events during the interview. The wrong people won’t like the phone.

Feature #3: Training your COA to succeed at their events means they know how to set up and run an event. They also know how to make an appointment and follow up that appointment into the office. In the training process, they need to SEE it done and HEAR it done. They need to be able to READ it done correctly and DO it for their trainer.

You need to MANAGE a great COA with the following:

Feature #1: Require a 60-second check-in and checkout every day. When the COA comes into the office in the morning they spend a minute explaining the plan to produce new patients for that day and at the end of the day they explain how their plan went. This keeps you in the loop and knowing exactly what’s going on.

Feature #2: Require daily stats and run your program on the most important stat and that is new patients in the door. Effort is good, but stats tell the story.

Feature #3: This was a surprise to me. I was thrilled at how my COAs loved the process of leading and training my associates. Let me make sure you understand; by giving them the responsibility to lead my associates into the associates’ marketing responsibility, it helped me manage the COA. I’m not exactly sure why it works, but every COA who’s been trained to train an associate is easier to keep on track producing more new patients.

These 3 Keys and 3 Features each have allowed me to build the largest clinic system in my state. Used correctly these keys and features have empowered my clients to break practice records, exceed $1M and build the practices of their dreams.